Brian Hoskin and Azizi,

Thank you so much for those detailed and helpful answers, and for the links. Having read through all this material, I have to conclude that wearing red is/was a funerary custom, especially practised by women. The theory that "it rhymes" isn't satisfactory. The point about rhymes is that the words match AND the lines make sense! The examples like "Who are those children dressed in red / black / white" are different -- those seem more arbitrary. But many instances have been posted in these forums to show that after a death, the women change into red clothes -- and even if a woman has got another daddy in the wings, the wearing of red is still, I would say, a funerary custom, not a celebration.

Thanks again!

Eric